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Photo attached. Sorry I don't have a photo from the top/back to make ID easier.

Anyone know what kind of spider this is? There are gazillions of them along the urban paths that I've been walking lately. Typically out in the daytime. Seem to have a web that resembles that of a blk widow (seemingly unorganized, not like an orb spinner). Web is usually very "tall" ie a single or dbl thread might stretch several feet from ground level to house eaves or tree limbs. Spider sits still till provoked, then runs a few inches up/down her web, than continues to sit still. I don't ever see any signs of food in the web (no bug carcass parts etc).





Any spiderologists out there?


Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke MA BSEd

i cannot tell without a photo

Sorry. I updated the post with photo.


Sarge

Looks like a type of "Daddy Long Legs" in the Opilione Family. Known as Harvestmen. Not a "True" spider....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones

I don't know what it is, but it doesn't look like a Daddy Long-legger to me.

@gummo
I was just thinking possibly the same Family...

Outdoor Lover wrote:@gummo
I was just thinking possibly the same Family...

It looks like a true spider because it's 2-segmented with a head and abdomen. Daddy Longleggers are not 2-segmented (I think).

@gummo
They actually are two segmented apparently, but there's no "bridge" between segments so it's "looks" like one. But I've just eliminated them anyway, since apparently they don't build webs, and the one in the picture above apparently does.... Back to the drawing board....

"Brown widow" ??

AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

*heart attack*

:stretch:

Did you need to do that? Geez ... What the eyes see, can never be unseen.

- kingsnake

p.s. The appropriate answer to all such queries is "The scarey kind".

kingsnake wrote:AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
What the eyes see, can never be unseen.

That's just one spider! If you really want to creep yourself out, shine a headlamp on the floor of an eastern forest at night and see the countless thousands of spider eyes shining back at you.

Okay, generally speaking, spiders don't bug me (haha pun). But thousands of little eyes reflecting from my flashlight? Eeeeeeeyew!!!! :yuck:

big_load: That is just cruel ...

@big_load
You don't even need an Eastern Forest for that. I made the mistake of shining my headlamp across the ground while I was laying in my Bivy at Turkey Creek....Made me damn glad I had the Bivy and wasn't Cowboy Camping....

At first glance, I thought the body structure looked like black widow. But, looking closer, the legs have strips on them and the color is not quite black like a black widow would be. So, like tewa commented, I would have to agree it might be a brown widow. It would be nice to see if it has the hour glass pattern on its abdomen.

The legs also look like daddy long legs. The widows have sharper points at the tips, so the legs do not look like widows. So, it might just be a daddy long legs too. Not sure.

Just a note, I have been out at Estrella Mountain park after dark looking for scorpions, and there were tons of black widows hanging out on and under the picnic tables. I do not see them during the day, but they are there. I even have one right now who lives just outside my patio door. It hates it when I come out at night to enjoy the fresh air...runs away!

Here you go...
Pholcus phalangioides
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcus_phalangioides

I feel sorry for the poor spiders reading this and realizing that the odds are pretty good that they aren't real.

You win the Trivia Scott! Nice job!